Lawrence Lessig
| birth_place = Rapid City, South Dakota, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | occupation = Founder, Creative Commons Founder, Stanford Center for Internet and Society Professor, Stanford Law School | salary = | networth = | spouse = Bettina Neuefeind | children = | website = www.lessig.org | footnotes = }} Lawrence Lessig (born June 3 1961) is an American academic. He is a professor of law at Stanford Law School and founder of its Center for Internet and Society. Lessig is founding board member of Creative Commons and is a board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and of the Software Freedom Law Center. He is best known as a proponent of reduced legal restrictions on copyright, trademark and radio frequency spectrum, particularly in technology applications. At the iCommons iSummit 07 Lessig announced that he will stop focusing his attention on copyright and related matters, and will work on political corruption instead. This new work may be partially facilitated through his wiki — “Lessig Wiki” — which he has encouraged the public to use to document cases of corruption. In February 2008, a Facebook group formed by law professor John Palfrey encouraged him to run for Congress from California's 12th congressional district, the seat vacated by the death of U.S. Representative Tom Lantos. Later that month, after forming an "exploratory project", the decision was made not to run for the vacant seat. Despite having decided to forgo running for congress himself, Lessig remained interested in attempting to change Congress to reduce corruption. To this end, he worked with political consultant Joe Trippi to launch a web based project called "Change Congress." In a press conference on March 20, 2008, Lessig explained that he hoped the Change Congress website would help provide technological tools voters could use to hold their representatives accountable and reduce the influence of money on politics. Academic career Born in Rapid City, South Dakota, Lessig earned a B.A. in Economics and a B.S. in Management (Wharton School) from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. in philosophy from the University of Cambridge (Trinity) in England, and a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School. Prior to joining Stanford he taught at the Harvard Law School, where he was the Berkman Professor of Law, affiliated with the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, and the University of Chicago Law School. Lessig is considered a liberal, but he clerked for two influential conservative judges: Richard Posner and Justice Antonin Scalia. Attitudes Lessig has emphasized in interviews that his philosophy experience at Cambridge radically changed his values and career path. Previously, he had held strong conservative or libertarian political views, desired a career in business, was a highly active Teenage Republican serving as the Youth Governor for Pennsylvania through the YMCA Youth & Government programhttp://www.ymcapa.org/ in 1978 and almost pursued a Republican political career. What was intended to be a year abroad at Cambridge convinced him instead to stay another two years to complete an undergraduate degree in philosophy there and develop his changed political values. During this time, he also traveled in the Eastern Bloc, so acquiring a lifelong interest in Eastern European law and politics. Lessig refuses to embrace the usual libertarianism. While Lessig remains skeptical of government intervention, he favors regulation by calling himself “a constitutionalist”. Because of his relative youth, and his intellectually innovative views of American legal theory, Lessig has often been cited as a potential candidate to fill vacant federal appellate judgeships in a future Democratic presidential administration. In his blog, Lessig has come out in favor of Democratic primary candidate Barack Obama, citing the transformative nature of Obama's campaign as one of his chief reasons. A campaign to draft Lessig to run for the US Congress from the Bay Area began in February 2008. "Code is law" In computer science, “code” typically refers to the text of a computer program (i.e., source code). In law, “code” can refer to the texts that constitute statutory law. In his book Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, Lessig explores the ways in which code in both senses can be instruments for social control, leading to his dictum that “Code is law”. Lessig Method .]] Lessig is also known for using a style of computer presentations typified by rapid display of short phrases or pictures.http://randomfoo.net/oscon/2002/lessig/free.html — Flash presentation of a Lessig “Free Culture” lecture and presentation James MacLennan calls his presentation style the “Lessig Method”. "Free Culture" In 2002, Lessig was awarded the Award for the Advancement of Free Software from the Free Software Foundation (FSF), and on March 28, 2004 he was elected to the FSF’s Board of Directors. In 2006, Lessig was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Lessig is also a well-known critic of copyright term extensions. He proposed the concept of “Free Culture.” He also supports free software and open spectrum. At his “Free culture” keynote at OSCON 2002, half of his speech was also about software patents, which he views as a rising threat to both free/open source software and innovation. at the iCommons iSummit07 in Dubrovnik]] Wiki-related activities In March 2006, Lessig joined the board of advisors of the Digital Universe project. A few months later, Lessig gave a talk on the ethics of the Free Culture Movement at the 2006 Wikimania conference. Personal life Lessig is married to human-rights lawyer Bettina Neuefeind and they have two sons, Willem Dakota Neuefeind Lessig, who was born on September 7, 2003, and Teo Elias Neuefeind Lessig, who was born on January 15, 2007. In May 2005, it was revealed that Lessig had experienced sexual abuse by the director at the American Boychoir School which he had attended as an adolescent. Lessig reached a settlement with the school in the past, under confidential terms. He revealed his experiences in the course of representing another student victim, John Hardwicke, in court. In August 2006, he succeeded in persuading the New Jersey Supreme Court to radically restrict the scope of immunity that had protected nonprofits which failed to prevent sexual abuse from legal liability. Media references Lessig appears as a character in a 2005 episode of the television political drama The West Wing (“The Wake Up Call”, season 6, episode 14). Lessig’s character, portrayed by Christopher Lloyd, is intended to be a realistic depiction including such details as citing his book The Future of Ideas and his expertise in Eastern European constitutional law. (Lessig’s comments on his blog) Artist group Monochrom performed a "Love Song for Lessig" on Boing Boing TV in the 2007-11-15 episode. The Austrian-German term "lässig" (meaning "cool" or "relaxed") is pronounced the same as Lessig's last name, and "Love Song for Lessig" uses the homonym for humor. Notable cases * Hardwicke v. American Boychoir (representing plaintiff John Hardwicke) Pending * Golan v. Gonzales (representing multiple plaintiffs) Dismissed * Eldred v. Ashcroft (representing plaintiff Eric Eldred) Lost * Kahle v. Ashcroft—also see Brewster Kahle Dismissed * Golan v. Ashcroft—also see http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/about/cases/golan_v_ashcroft.shtml Dismissed * United States v. Microsoft (special master and author of an amicus brief addressing the Sherman Acthttp://www.lessig.org/content/testimony/ab/ab.pdf) ** Lessig was appointed special master by Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson in 1997. The appointment was vacated by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuithttp://pacer.cadc.uscourts.gov/common/opinions/199806/97-5343a.txt. The appellate court ruled that the powers granted to Lessig exceeded the scope of the Federal statute providing for special masters. Judge Jackson then solicited Lessig’s amicus brief. ** Lessig himself says about this appointment: “Did Justice Jackson pick me to be his special master because he had determined I was the perfect mix of Holmes and Ed Felten? No, I was picked because I was a Harvard Law Professor teaching the law of cyberspace. Remember: So is “fame” made.”http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/002421.shtml * ''MPAA v. 2600'' (submitted an amicus brief with Yochai Benkler in support of 2600http://www.lessig.org/content/testimony/dvd/dvd.pdf) Bibliography * Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace (2000) ISBN 978-0-465-03913-5 * The Future of Ideas (2001) ISBN 978-0-375-50578-2 - available as a free Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical (by-nc) licensed download http://www.the-future-of-ideas.com/ * Free Culture (2004) ISBN 978-1-59420-006-9 - available as a free Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical licensed download http://free-culture.org/ * Code: Version 2.0 (2006) ISBN 978-0-465-03914-2 - available as a free Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (by-sa) licensed download http://codev2.cc/ References External links * Lawrence Lessig's web site * Transcript of his oral argument and [http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/02pdf/01-618.pdf the Court's Opinion for Eldred v. Ashcroft] * 2002 FSF Award for the Advancement of Free Software * coverage of Lessig's opposition to the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act * The 'Lessig' Method of Presentation * The Anti-Lessig Wiki, a wiki started by Prof. Lessig intended to provide a space to catalog critics and oppositions of his ideas (currently mostly inactive) *An Interview with Lawrence Lessig on Creative Commons * Change Congress A national movement started by Lessig and Joe Trippi to end corruption in America's congress Columns * How I Lost The Big One—Lessig's account of why the Eldred v. Ashcroft case went to Ashcroft * [http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.03/lessig_pr.html Some Like It Hot essay by Lessig in Wired 12.03 excerpted from Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity] * Lessig admits having been wrong on Microsoft's monopoly power and the potential for a competitor to arise. Interviews * [http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.10/lessig_pr.html Lawrence Lessig's Supreme Showdown—Wired magazine interview from October 2002] * [http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3306&print=1 Seven Questions: Battling for Control of the Internet], Foreign Policy, November 2005 * Slashdot interview * [http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/policy/2005/02/24/lessig.html Remixing Culture: An Interview with Lawrence Lessig], O'Reilly Network, 2005-2-24 * “Lawrence Lessig and the developing Nations License”, Worldchanging, November 16, 2006 Audio/Video * Press Conference Announcing the release of the Change Congress website * “Free Culture” keynote from OSCON 2002 (including an audio and Flash with the presentation as well as the presentation itself) * Who Owns Culture?—Jeff Tweedy and Lawrence Lessig in conversation with Steven Johnson * Who Owns Ideas? Radio interview on Philosophy Talk * Debate between Lessig and Jack Valenti. * Lessig's keynote from OSCON 2005 (with comments, audio and presentation) * Christopher Lydon Interviews… Audio interview. * The Lawrence Lessig interview on Radiophiles.org * IT Conversations—Audio programs featuring Lessig * Lawrence Lessig interview on This Week in Tech * Lessig on Digital Village Radio, December 3, 2005 ** Part 1 (MP3) ** Part 2 (MP3) * Lessig on the Triangulation podcast, December 5, 2005. Topic: Google Books * An archive of speeches * Lessig discusses Network Neutrality in this video taken at Rochester Institute of Technology on March 24, 2006 * Lessig discusses the concept of the Read-Write Society at the Wizards of OS (138 MB) (alternatively you can hear the audio recording: 36 MB) * * Lawrence Lessig—On Free, and the Differences between Culture and Code from the 2006 Chaos Communication Congress * Video—Interview (mainly in English with German intro and German subtitles): Part 1, Part 2 * Creative Commons Explained: Lawrence Lessig on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos * Lessig participating in a Panel Discussion, Free Culture Forum, March 23, 2006, sponsored by the Northeastern University Libraries in Boston, MA. * Video of Lessig's March 2007 talk, "How creativity is being strangled by the law," at the annual TED conference in Monterey, California. * Lawrence Lessig on "Open Source Cinema", an open source documentary film about copyright. * Lawrence Lessig interview in "Good Copy Bad Copy", a documentary about copyright and culture. Denmark, 2007. * Change Congress Project Launch, Sponsored by the Sunlight Foundation, and held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on March 20, 2008 * The Future of the Open Internet in America, FCC hearing at Stanford University on April 17, 2008 * [http://www.oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2002/2002_01_618/ Audio and transcript of Eldred v. Ashcroft hearing], from Oyez.org See also * Free Culture Movement * Copyleft * Free software movement * Free content * FreeCulture.org * Open educational resources * Gratis versus Libre (free as in freedom) * Open content * Creative Commons Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Category:American bloggers Category:American lawyers Category:American legal academics Category:Computer law Category:Copyright scholars Category:Copyright activists Category:Open content activists Category:Harvard Law School professors Category:Members of the Free Software Foundation board of directors Category:People from South Dakota Category:Second Life Residents Category:Technology in society Category:Wharton School alumni Category:1961 births Category:Living people Category:Wired magazine people Category:Yale Law School alumni Category:Stanford University faculty Category:University of Chicago faculty Category:Open source licenses Category:Free content licenses Category:Copyleft licensing Category:Copyright licenses Category:Creative Commons bg:Лорънс Лесиг de:Lawrence Lessig es:Lawrence Lessig eu:Lawrence Lessig fr:Lawrence Lessig ko:로렌스 레식 it:Lawrence Lessig he:לורנס לסיג lt:Lawrence Lessig hu:Lawrence Lessig nl:Lawrence Lessig ja:ローレンス・レッシグ no:Lawrence Lessig pl:Lawrence Lessig pt:Lawrence Lessig ru:Лессиг, Лоуренс fi:Lawrence Lessig sv:Lawrence Lessig ta:லோறன்ஸ் லெசிக் th:ลอว์เรนซ์ เลสสิก